Television Literacy: A Critique David Buckingham The term •television literacy’ has been increasingly widely used in recent years, both by researchers investigating the relationship between children and television and by educationalists arguingfor the formal study ofthe medium in schools. This paper discusses some of the theoretical issues which are at stake in the basic analogy […]

Marxism, Romanticism and Utopia: Ernst Bloch and William Morris Ruth Levitas t Marxists have generally been antagonistic to anything that could be described as utopian, justifying this on the basis of Marx ‘s and Engels’ strictures on the ‘utopian socialists’. In recent years, several writers have pointed out that neither Marx nor Engels was totally […]

The Return of the Subject in late Foucault Peter Dews The following essay is an initial attempt to extend the comparison of the thought of Michel Foucault with that of the Frankfurt School, begun in my Logics of Disintegration (Verso, 1987), to cover the work ofFoucault’s last phase. It does not claim to be a […]

REVIEWS ANTI -ANTI -ALTHUSSERIANISM Gregory Elliott, Althusser: The Detour of Theory, London, Verso, 1988, 359pp., £29.95 hb, £10.95 pb. Few events in the recent history of the intellectual left in Britain can have had as disruptive an effect upon its prevailing orthodoxies and habits of mind as the onset of ‘Ahtusserianism’ in the early 1970s. […]

NEWS FOUNDATIONS OF HOPE: Report on the Radical Philosophy Conference, 5 November 1988 It was to be expected. A splendidly organised Conference, loads of interesting discussions. Good comradely meetings, friends everywhere. But I came away feeling that the title had somehow turned against itself. Not so much Politics, Reason, Hope as Politics (but let’s not […]

This is the fiftieth issue of Radical Philosophy. The first issue was published in January 1972, and we reprint below the statement that appeared in that first issue. The aims of the group were to publish the magazine, set up a network of local activities and groups, and hold national conferences. The magazine has appeared […]

Humanism = Speciesism Marx on Humans and Animals Ted Benton INTRODUCTION This paperl is intended to fonn part of a more extended exploration of some key texts ofMarx from the standpoint of the so-called ‘new’ social movements (though some of these pre-date the Marxist tradition itself!). Here, I shall be focussing on the early work […]

Hegel as Lord and Master Chris Arthur INTRODUCTION The feminist interrogation of philosophy can take two forms. It can examine what philosophers have had to say about the nature and destiny of woman: here the record is one of almost universal sexism (Kennedy & Mendus 1987). In addition, it may ask if this is merely […]

Feminism and Images of Autonomy Pauline Johnson It is by now widely accepted that feminist politics has meant the expansion of our understanding of the nature of the political. Feminism’s powerful critique of the oppressive character of traditionall y structured relations between the sexes is seen to have added new depth and meaning to the […]

The Modern Family Therapy Movement: Is Systematic Edification Possible? Graham Tuson SYSTEMS, EDIFICATION AND CHANGE The modem family therapy movement involves significantly novel behavioural technologies for bringing about change in patterns of human relationships. As a professional discipline it is characterised by a central tension which can usefully be understood in terms of the relationship […]

Philosophy in Hackney Nadine Cartner Nadine Cartner, a member of the Radical Philosophy collective, teaches ‘A’ level Philosophy at Hackney College in London. Below is an edited transcript of the ideas and comments of some of her students. The large majority of these students are working class, many of them black; most of them have […]

REVIEWS I I I ~~~~~~t L———_ _ _ ~ ___ J THE HISTORICAL MATERIALISM DEBATE S. H. Rigby, Marxism and History: a Critical Introduction, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1987, 314pp., £29.95 hb. Derek Sayer, The Violence ofAbstraction: the Analytic F oundationsofHistoricaIMaterialism,Oxford,Blackwell, 1987,xiiiand 173pp., £22.50 hb. Alex Callinicos, Making History: Agency, Structure and Change in Social […]

NEWS THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR PHILOSOPHY Some issues ago we noted, with interest, the formation of the ‘National Committee for Philosophy’ (RP 44, News, ‘Caring for Philosophy?’). Since then, the Committee has organised itself into a more formal body. We recently received the following statement regarding the Committee’s structure and current aims from its ‘Chair’, […]

Dear Radical Philosophy, Since I want to offer a brief, critical comment on the project of RP , I first want to say that anyone who knows anything about producing small unofficial journals will know what desperately hard work it is – financially, administratively, personally. Simply to keep a radical and committed journal such as […]

EDITORIAL One of the strengths of Radical Philosophy is its ability to put together a thoroughly disparate set of articles, and point out the obvious theme linking them; and then to make a virtue for itself out of having done that. This virtue is carried through into this issue, in that each of the articles […]

John Rawls and Human Welfare John Watt INTRODUCTION John Rawls has been a dominant figure over the last generation of Western social philosophy. I know of four book-length studies of his thought – Barry (1973), WoIff (1977), Schaefer (1979) and Martin (1985) – and two volumes of collected essays: Daniels (1975) and Blocker and Smith […]

Dull Compulsion of the Economic The Dominant Ideology and Social Reproduction Conrad Lodziak One of the most influential ideas amongst many Marxists, the Left and social theorists is what Abercrombie, Hill and Turner refer to as ‘the dominant ideology thesis’.1 This thesis has it ‘that modem capitalist society … maintains and reproduces itself through the […]

Is Bhaskar’s Realism Realistic? A/an Chalmers In this paper I begin by briefly outlining what I consider to be the key features of Roy Bhaskar’s realist account of laws of nature. l I regard his account to be the best available. However, I do not think his case can be established as conclusively as is […]

‘Pure Lust’ The Elemental Feminist Philosophy of Mary Daly Jean Grimshaw … Pure Lust names the high humor, hope and cosmic accord/harmony of those women who choose to escape, to follow our heart’s deepest desire and bound out of the State of Bondage, Wanderlusting and Wonderlusting with the elements, connecting with auras of animals and […]